Arni Anderson heard the tornadoes were coming toward his Oklahoma home … so he grabbed his watercolors and headed to his driveway to paint.
The result was a powerful depiction of a potentially dangerous situation. And that’s just what he titled his painting. “This piece was done from my driveway, painted in 20 minutes while watching the skies and listening to the three main weathermen in the area make up new words for things in the sky,” Anderson says. “So I decided to paint what I saw — and what I thought they were seeing. Words like I had never heard before — hook echoes, finger dusters, anvils, and of course, circulations, lowerings, a wall cloud. I couldn’t resist having a little fun with those words.
“It did prove to be the system or situation that produced the F-5 that killed 24 people and was recorded as the biggest and worst tornado. But a week later the one about 30-40 miles away inward — El Reno — was and still is the worst and biggest ever recorded.”
